62 SPORTING STORIES 



attire on Greenwich Hill during Easter, not only getting 

 " scratched " himself, but running after a large field of girls, 

 who called him "the mysterious stranger," and doing 

 immense execution with his scratcher in return. The 

 "scratcher," I should explain, was something like the 

 peacock-feather " tickler " of Mafeking days, and the girls 

 and lads chased one another armed with " scratchers." 

 After this exciting sport of " scratching," he was not only, 

 according to his own phrase, " fit to fight a windmill," but 

 to win the Derby and Oaks as well. Sam was very fond 

 of holding forth to the young jockeys on wasting. " Drink- 

 ing," he would say, " inflates you just like a balloon ; 

 champagne and light wines are all rubbish — they only 

 blow a fellow's roof off. But no man can work if he can't 

 eat ; you can't get light without eating — have a good 

 mutton chop, that's my style." Then he would add, " De- 

 pend on't, a man doesn't know the comforts of life if he 

 doesn't know the wastin' part of it." 



Another jockey famous in the wasting line was Sam 

 Darling, who gave up riding in 1844. His walks for 

 twenty-five years in the sweaters alone were estimated to 

 have totalled 5000 miles. He quite knocked up young Day, 

 who was considered a good pedestrian, in a strong twelve- 

 mile walk from Newmarket to the Swan at Bottisham and 

 back. John's sweaters got slack, and he was so dead-beat 

 that he had to give in. In 1832 Sam rode 174 races and 

 won 73. One year, after riding in the St Leger, he 

 borrowed a clever hack from a brother jockey, and, catching 

 the coach at Sheffield, won twice at Shrewsbury the next 

 day, and had time to waste as well. 



Nat Flatman's real Christian name was Elnathan, and he 

 was a Suffolk lad by birth. It was in 1841 that he per- 

 formed the astonishing feat of reducing himself in two 

 days from 7 st. 12 lbs. to 7 st. 4 lbs. To realise the wonderful 

 nature of this feat, it must be remembered that there were 

 no Turkish baths in those days — only salts, sweating, and 

 starvation — neither were there " skeleton " or even 2-lb. 

 saddles. But Nat's drastic " wasting " had its reward, for 

 he steered the Irish Vulcan to victory for the Cambridge- 

 shire. His ordinary riding weight was 7 st. 8 lbs., which 



